Winter Love
by Breaking.Free.101
Summary: Gabi comes home from college and brings her boyfriend,Chris.The rest of the gang is home,too.Even Troy.Are her feelings back? She's not sure, but she knows that you can't forget your first love. Read to find out what happens. XOXO
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"You nervous, babe?" My boyfriend, Chris, asked as he drove the rented black, Ford Escape Limited towards my mother's house in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

"No." I replied. "Why?"

"You just seemed a little nervous to me." He replied and grabbed my hand.

"Don't worry," I told him. "I'm fine." I looked at the thick snow that was piled along the edges of the streets and smiled to myself. The car turned onto my teenage street and my stomach tied itself into knots. I shifted a little bit in my seat and held Chris's hand a little tighter.

"You ARE nervous!" Chris exclaimed and laughed.

"Shut up!" I joked and the car pulled into my driveway. I immediately jumped out of the car and ran across the snow to the front door. The door opened as I walked up the steps and I jumped into my mom's arms.

"Hey!" I squealed.

"I'm so glad you're home!" Mom exclaimed and then held me out at arms length. "You look so beautiful!"

"Thanks, Mom!" I replied. Chris's voice came from just outside the door.

"No worries, I got the bags." I turned around and saw Chris trying to carry all of the bags into the door.

"I'm sorry!" I said. "Let me help." I grabbed my bag and then closed the door behind Chris.

"Nice to see you again, Chris." Mom said, hugging him.

"Good to see you again, too, Ms. Montez." He replied. "Where should we put these bags?"

"Gabs, you're in your old room, and Chris is the guest room down the hall from her." Mom said.

"Thanks, I'll go take these up." He said.

"I'll help!" I volunteered, grabbed my bag and walked upstairs with Chris. I put my bags down in my room and walked with Chris to the guest room.

"Here it is!" I said, opening the door for him. "It's not much."

"It's fine." Chris said and put his bag down beside the closet door. I kissed his cheek and then walked back into my room. I sat down on the familiar comforter and looked at the rest of the room. Nothing had changed since I left for school. From the pink walls to the pictures sitting on my bedside table, it was all the same.

Just as I had started to relax, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I groaned and pulled my Moto Rzr 2 out of my pocket and looked at Sharpay Evans's picture on the screen.

"Hey Shar!" I said when I answered. "What's up?"

"Are you in town yet?" She asked.

"We just got in. And we're at the house." I said. "What about you?"

"Ryan and I got in yesterday." She replied. "And I cannot stand another moment with my parents. I need to get out of this house!"

"Ok," I said. "Todd's Grill & Bar?"

"What time?" She asked.

"7?" I suggested.

"Amazing!" She exclaimed. "See you then!" She hung up, I dropped my phone onto the bed and then walked to Chris's room.

"Chris?" I asked when I walked inside.

"Right here." He said and walked into the room from the walk-in closet. I sat down on the bed.

"Sharpay called." I told him.

"Ok?" He said.

"We're going to dinner at 7." I told him.

"Ok." He replied. "I'll be ready."

"Great!" I said, got up, and walked back into my room.

After a warm and refreshing shower, I wrapped a pink terrycloth robe around my body and started to get ready. I carefully blow dried my long, black hair, and then straightened it. I unzipped my suitcase and surveyed the clothes I had brought. After a couple minutes of pondering what to wear, I finally decided on something. I pulled a pair of dark-washed True Religion jeans over my legs, and then pulled a crème colored cami over my head. I slipped a wine colored, ¾ length cardigan sweater onto my arms and put on my make-up. I stepped into a pair of chocolate brown, rounded toe wedges and walked downstairs.

"Where you guys going tonight?" Mom asked as I walked into the kitchen.

"Todd's." I told her. "Sharpay called and said she needed to get away from the parents." Mom nodded.

"Ready to go?" Chris asked when he walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed. "Let's go! See you later, Mom."

"Don't stay out to late!" Mom said as Chris helped me put on my brown, North Face winter jacket.

"We'll be back before you know it, Ms. Montez." Chris said and we walked out of the house.

"Who all is going to this thing?" Chris asked as he pulled the car out of the driveway.

"Sharpay is probably going to call whoever is in town." I explained. "Maybe Chad or Taylor. Or Jason or Tr…" I stopped in the middle of the word.

"Who?" Chris asked.

"No one." I said quickly. Chris pulled the car into an empty parking spot in front of Todd's Grill & Bar. "Come on, let's go!"

"I'm guessing you're excited?" Chris asked as we walked hand-in-hand towards the front door of the restaurant.

"I haven't seen some of these guys since the summer after graduation." I told him. "I can't help it." Chris opened the door and we walked inside.

"Hi! Welcome to Todd's Grill & Bar! How many in your party?" A cheery hostess with a name tag that said, Krista asked.

"Actually, we're with Sharpay Evans." I said. "Is she here yet?"

"Yes." She replied. "She's in the banquet room. Go ahead. It's straight through the main dining room and to the right."

"Ok, thank you." I said and tugged on Chris's hand to follow. We walked through the main dining room and towards a set of closed French doors.

"Hey, hey!" I exclaimed as I pushed the doors open and saw Sharpay and Ryan sitting at opposite ends of the table.

"Gabriella!" Sharpay squealed and jumped up from her seat.

"Sharpay!" I exclaimed as we hugged. "You look so awesome!" And she really did. As usual it wasn't a surprise to see her dressed in pink.

"So do you!" She exclaimed.

"What about me?" Ryan asked walking over to me with his arms open. "Don't I get any love?"

"Let me think about it." I said. "Okay." I hugged him. I saw Chris out of the corner of my eye standing awkwardly beside us.

"Oh, guys." I said and walked back over to Chris. I took his hand. "This is my boyfriend, Chris. Chris, this is Sharpay, I think you met her when we were in New York, and her brother, Ryan."

"Nice to meet you both." Chris said.

"Let's sit down." Sharpay said and we all sat down around the round table.

"Who all is coming, Shar?" I asked.

"Us!" Someone yelled from the doorway. We all turned around. Standing in the doorway were Chad Danforth, holding hands with Taylor McKessie, Kelsi Nielson, Jason Cross, and Zeke Baylor.

The whole hugging and squealing scene started over again with the girls, and the guys sort of just talked together.

"Can I take your drink orders?" An acne ridden teen asked as we sat down, me between Chris and Chad. Everyone gave her our drink orders as everyone chatted amongst themselves.

"You okay?" I asked Chris.

"Yeah." He replied as he leaned back in the chair. The doors opened again and everyone turned around.

"Sorry I'm late guys." A voice I recognized all to well said. "I got caught up with something at the house." They guy stepped out into the light and I felt my stomach drop.

"Troy!" Chad exclaimed.

"What's up, guys?" Troy said as he sat down. "Hey Zeke, Jason. How's Duke?"

"Man, it's awesome!" Jason exclaimed. Troy looked around the table and we caught each other's eye. I looked away and then grabbed his Chris's hand on top of the table.

When I looked back up at Troy, he was sitting at back in his chair, his arms crossed on his chest, and an irritated look on his face. I had a weird feeling in my stomach that it was going to be a long dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

_Flashback_

_Hot, summer air made my long, black, hair stick to the back of my neck as Troy and I walked down a sidewalk in downtown Albuquerque. _

_"Troy, look at that!" I said and pointed at a manikin in a boutique window. I stopped to look at clothes._

_"Come on, let's go inside." Troy said, giving in, like he had at four other stores._

_"Thank you!" I said and he opened the door for us to walk inside. A small bell jingled as we walked into the store. I walked over to one of the racks and started looking through the soft material._

_"Do you like this?" I asked Troy and held up a dress._

_"I don't care." He replied and looked at a display of 80's jewelry._

_"There's nothing here." I said. "Let's go." Troy and I grabbed hands again and we walked out of the store. _

_As we walked down the sidewalks again, Troy's phone rang inside his pocket. He reached inside his pocket with his free hand, and answered._

_"Hello?" He asked. "Hey, Chad!...Yea!...I'll be there in a minute…Ok, bye." He hung up._

_"Basketball?" I asked._

_"I'm sorry, I promised I'd spend the day with you, but these college scouts keep calling my dad and" I cut him off._

_"Go." I said. _

_"Are you sure?" He asked. "I mea, I can call Dad and he can reschedule."_

_"Troy, really, just go." I said._

_"Thank you!" He said. "I'll make it up to you."_

_"You don't have to." I told him._

_"Yes, I do." He said. "I promised. Okay, tonight at Moe's. At 7. Meet me there."_

_"I'll see you tonight." I said. "Go!"_

_"Great! Thanks!" He gave me a light kiss on the lips and then ran off towards where he parked his car._

_THAT EVENING_

_"Have fun tonight!" Mom said as I walked towards the front door. I checked my reflection in the mirror. I rubbed my hands over the material of the deep v neck, empire waist, brown mini dress (pic in profile). I checked my fire-red pedicure in my sandals (pic in profile) and then walked out the door. I walked across the yard and climbed into my black BMW M3. I pulled out of the driveway and drove towards Moe's restaurant. _

_When I got to the restaurant, I parked and then walked inside._

_"I'm here with Troy Bolton." I said to the hostess. She looked down at her notebook and replied,_

_"He's not here yet. But you can wait for him at the table."_

_"Okay." I replied. "I'll do that." I followed her to a table and sat down._

_ONE HOUR LATER_

_I looked at the two empty glasses of coke on the table and sighed. I knew Troy wasn't coming. I stood up, threw my Coach hobo bag over my shoulder, and walked out of the restaurant, leaving a ten-dollar bill on the table. I climbed into my car as I pushed away tears and drove back to my house._

_"How was it?" Mom asked as I walked inside. _

_"Fine." I said, trying to hide my voice breaking. "Goodnight." I walked upstairs and closed the door to my bedroom behind me. What I saw surprised me. Standing outside my balcony doors was Troy Bolton. I walked over and reached up to close the curtains._

_"Gabs wait!" He said. "Just let me talk." I opened the door._

_"What?" I asked. "Did you come to embarrass me again?"_

_"Listen…" He said._

_"No," I said. "I sat at that restaurant for an hour waiting for you, Troy!"_

_"I can explain." He said._

_"There's no need to." I told him. "I'm done."_

_"Gabs," He said. I walked over to the balcony doors and opened it._

_"Go." I said._

_"Please." He said. _

_"Troy." I said. He walked out the door and I watched him climb down the balcony. _

_End Flashback_

"Gabs?" Chris asked, knocking me out of my daze.

"What?" I asked and sat up.

"You've been staring into space for like five minutes, now." He said.

"Oh, sorry." I said. I looked across the table and saw Troy still staring at us. Sharpay caught me looking.

"I have to use the bathroom." She said randomly.

"Yeah, me too." Taylor said.

"And me." I said and stood up. We walked out of the room, and into the bathroom.

"Gabi!" Sharpay exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." I replied and dug through my purse for a tube of lip gloss.

"Gabriella, you are literally flaunting Chris just to make Troy jealous." Taylor said.

"No, I'm not." I said.

"You are just sitting there, holding his hand, kissing his cheek, and you know that Troy's been watching you the whole time." Sharpay said.

"It's his fault that I'm not sitting there with him and he knows it." I said.

"You broke up with him, Gabi." Taylor said and primped her curls.

"Come on, let's go." I said.

"You know we're right." Sharpay said as we walked back towards the room.

"I'm not listening." I said and we walked into the dinner room again. We sat down at the table.

"Did you have fun in the bathroom?" Chad asked.

"I guess so." Taylor replied.

When we finished dinner, we all walked out of the restaurant and out to the parking lot.

"You ready to go?" I asked Chris as everyone stood in a circle by our cars. He nodded as he put his arm around me. I looked at everyone.

"I think that Chris and I are gonna head out." I told everyone. "Thanks guys. I'll see you guys around. Bye." Chris and I climbed into the car and I waved as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"You seemed like you were having fun." Chris said as we drove.

"Yeah, I was." I said. "Everyone seemed really happy to see each other."

"Yeah, except for that Troy guy." He said. "He seemed sort of ticked."

"Oh, yeah." I replied. "He did didn't he?"

"Yeah." He said and pulled into the driveway. We climbed out of the car and walked into the house.

"Hey, Mom!" I said as I took off my jacket and hung it on the hook.

"Hey guys!" She replied from where she sat on the couch watching Project Runway. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah." I told her and kissed her cheek. "Goodnight, I love you."

"I love you, too." She said. "Goodnight, Chris."

"Goodnight, Ms. Montez." He replied. We walked upstairs and stopped in the hallway.

"I love you." I said.

"I love you, too." He replied and kissed me.

"I'll see you in the morning." I told him and walked into my room.

I changed into a pair of satin, turquoise, pajama shorts and a white tank-top. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and sat down in front of my laptop sitting on the bed. I opened my email and was surprised to find on from Troy—and it had been sent just a few minutes ago. I debated against opening it, but then clicked on it.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

**From: Troy Bolton **

**To: Gabriella Montez **

**Subject: NONE**

**Meet me at The Coffee Hut...10:15 tomorrow...**

** -TB**

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I gaped at the computer screen and read the message over and over again. I quickly closed the laptop and then climbed under the covers. I turned off the light on the bedside table and fell asleep.


End file.
